Chronology of the Armenian Genocide -- 1916 (January-June)

Click on the names of highlighted cities, towns, and other locations to view a map of the genocide.

January 1

The Armenian deportees concentrated in Suruj District, near Urfa, are sent out toward Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) under very severe winter conditions, completely lacking food, shelter, and suitable clothing.

January 5

Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda seeks to oust Ali Suad, the Arab governor of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) District for lack of severity by applying directly to Talaat.

January 8

The immediate deportation to the desert of the Armenians working on the railroads or in railway construction is ordered.

January 11

Instructions are sent to prevent foreign officers from photographing dead Armenians.

January 13

U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau during his farewell visit with Talaat is told of the pointlessness of speaking about the Armenians.

January 15

A second circular telegram is issued by the Interior Ministry to prevent photographing of the dead.

January 17

The governor-general of Aleppo is instructed to send the Armenians deported from the northern provinces directly to their final destinations.

January 23

The governor-general of Aleppo informs Talaat that only 10% of the Armenian deportees remain alive, and that measures are being taken to dispose of them also.

January

A French translation of a spurious book prepared by Talaat's office charging the Armenians with treason and revolution is published.

January 23 to March 10

During this period of 47 days, of 486,000 Armenian deportees, 364,500 are reported to have been killed by the Turks or to have died because of the hardships of the deportations.

January 24

The War Ministry orders all Armenian soldiers remaining alive in the Turkish armies to be converted to Islam and to be circumcised.

January 24

The governor-general of Aleppo orders the vice-governor of Aintab to deport the remaining Armenian women in Aintab.

January 26

German Marshal Colmar von der Goltz is appointed Commander of the Eastern Front.

A circular telegram instructs that orphans who do not remember their parents be send from Aleppo to Sivas; the rest are to be send to Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) and no expenditures are to be made for their existence.

An American application to send relief to the Armenians is rejected by Turkey.

February 16

Talaat sends a circular letter to Urfa, Aintab and Kilis requesting documents to indict the Armenians.

February 16

The Russian Army occupies Erzerum. Only a handful of captive Armenian women are found alive in the entire province.

February

Marshal Liman von Sanders claims to have stopped the deportation of many Armenians from Adrianople (Edirne).

February

Tahir Jevdet, Enver's brother-in-law, the governor-general of Van Province, travels via Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain) to Adana, where shortly before he had been appointed governor-general, replacing Ismail Hakki.

February 16

U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing asks the German Ambassador Bernstorff to stop the Armenian tragedy.

February 22

Henry Morgenthau arrives in New York.

February 23

Count Wolff-Metternich, the German ambassador in Turkey, visits Talaat and Halil Bey, the newly-appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the Armenian Question with them because of the representations of the United States to the German government.

February 28

A few Armenian soldiers in the Turkish Army in Aleppo are forcibly converted to Islam.

The Interior Ministry is informed from Aleppo that the Armenians who fled from Mardin had been killed.

March 4

A circular telegram instructs that Armenians of military age are to be put to work only outside inhabited areas.

March 10

A report is send to the Interior Ministry from Aleppo informing that 75% of the Armenians previously in the desert are now dead, and only 25% remain alive.

March 14

Kerim Refi, described as a very savage Rumelian Turk, who is appointed vice-governor of Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain) arrives from Constantinople. He speeds up the massacres of the Armenian deportees concentrated in Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain), which had gotten off to a slow start. The massacres extend over a period of five months. Kerim Refi utilizes primarily chete forces, including one extremely wild tribe of Circassians.

The Turkish government again rejects foreign relief for the Armenians.

May 3

According to The New York Times, before the fall of Erzerum, 15,000 Armenians had been massacred in the nearby town of Mamakhatun, west of the city of Erzerum.

May 10

Shaikh-ul-Islam (Turkish religious chief) Khairi resigns under pressure. Musa Kiazim, a war criminal, succeeds him as Shaikh-ul-Islam and as Minister of Pious Foundations.

May 12

1,400 Armenian orphans are distributed to various places by the Ittihad Committees.

May 21

News is received concerning the fate of 19,000 deportees in one caravan, of whom 16,500 are reported killed on the banks of the Khabur River, northeast of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor), and 2,500 survivors are reported having arrived at Mosul.

The Arab governor of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) District, Ali Suad, is sent to Baghdad for refusing to carry out the extermination of the deportees. He is replaced by Salih Zeki, the former vice-governor of Everek in Kayseri Province, reputed for his cruelty.

June 20

The Armenians working in labor corps in Sivas are instructed to convert to Islam. At least 95% refuse.

June 25

7,000 Armenian soldiers stationed in Sivas are imprisoned for nine days in the old Seljuk buildings where formerly the civilian Armenian leaders and intellectuals had been imprisoned before being killed.

June 30

Ambassador von Wolff-Metternich reports to the German Chancellor that Ittihad is devouring the remaining Armenian refugees.

June 30

On the argument that those who refuse are going to be deported into the desert again, the proposal is made to the Armenian labor battalions in Damascus and to the civilian deportees that they become Muslims. Very few Armenians accept.